


Glad You Came

by Kozmotittspitchiner



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Therapy, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-05
Updated: 2013-10-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 11:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/991597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kozmotittspitchiner/pseuds/Kozmotittspitchiner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin came back from Australia with an addiction and Kou made him go into therapy -- where he meets old and new friends. And a boy, who's bare shoulder he can't forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glad You Came

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a birthday present for my best friend A. I love you, A. A. studies psychology and will probably tear her hair out reading most of this. It was meant as a crackfic, but it has some serious undertones.

He was so fragile. He noticed him first when he walked the halls, still in his regular clothing. Rin only needed to catch a glimpse of the slender boy's back in his light blue psychiatry robe to know who it was. The crook of his neck was a soft curve, his pale skin in stark contrast to his dark hair, looking somewhat lifeless. They really shouldn't put boys in dresses, he thought, eyes still stuck on that small slip of shoulder he was able to see.

He had almost completely forgotten to listen to the woman who was walking next to him, accompanying him to his room and telling him about breakfast, lunch and dinner times. When he had to be where. Rin quickly tried to put all of his attention back on her, but the strangely familiar male still occupied his mind when he shed himself out of his jumper and handed the woman every sharp object that he was carrying with him. Hell, he really had been hoping he'd be allowed to keep his iPod, but it had to be handed in, too. He didn't bother to ask what else he was supposed to occupy his time with and dully looked back into her politely smiling face. If it wasn't for his sister, he wouldn't be here. Not at all.

She showed him his bathroom, how the shower worked and in the end she handed him a small time table with activities he didn't have to appear at. But it would be nice if he would. Not that Rin was in the mood for silly dancing classes, or drawing circles. They even did some singing, or so it seemed. As soon as she was gone he dropped himself on his new bed, stubbornly looking up at the ceiling. Maybe the boy he had seen hadn't been the one he ought him to be. Maybe he had hallucinated him. He was crazy enough for shit like that after all, huh? The thought burned through his mind a lot more intensely than he had planned, because he remembered why he was here.

He had taken the last shot last night, just before Gou had found his needles and convinced him to come here for rehab. He'd need another shot, soon. Nobody had told him how to handle the time in which the urge first re-appeared, but he supposed he wouldn't be left alone for too long anyways. After all, there was also the time table of things that he was forced to attend, talks with a psychiatrist and another activity that looked plain boring. And some sort of confession circle, in which every patient would have to appear every evening, giving a feedback on the overall day. He hoped he wouldn't have to stay as long as to have to stand more than fourteen of those days, regardless of the image of the boy that was still haunting him.

Aggression. They told him he'd have a lot of that and needed an outlet. When he told them that he was swimming, planning to be a professional swimmer and that he would have his outlet if he wasn't trapped here, they disregarded him. Castle in the clouds, they said. Dreams far away, but not what he was supposed to concentrate on right now. There was more than swimming. Life was beautiful, despite of the results he got in runs-- yadda yadda. Or that was how much he was taking out of the brief first talk he had with a middle aged lady with a clip board, who was smiling at him.

But she never really looked at him. It was as though she was looking through him every now and then, but her eyes quickly flew back to her clipboard. Rin was already doubting that the whole therapy thing would get anywhere useful. He walked out of the consulting room in a bored fashion, hands buried deep inside the pockets of the dull sweatpants he had to wear, sapphire gaze sticking to the floor.

“But I want to.” he heard a voice say, simple and quiet, but clear. It was the tone of an adult, but it was spoken by a teen. It was soft around the edges, tender, but also distant. He knew that voice. Stopping in his steps he looked up to see the back of that same boy again, dark hair, pale skin, a slip of shoulder. He was talking to the woman who had shown him around earlier and something about her distressed look told him that something wasn't going according to her plan.

“I have to, I need the water.” It was a strange thing to say, but spoken with that voice it seemed to make sense somehow. Everything seemed to make sense the moment he said it.

The image of the slender boy in front of him turned into that of a less thinner and younger male, looking at him out of deep blue eyes. I need the water. Haruka. His name was spoken by a voice much younger than his, his own voice. There was an audible smile in it, wide and happy. Happy. Rin realized that he had been and the other teen had turned around already, those same deep sea eyes mustering him in quiet surprise, full of emotion for the glimpse of a second, his mouth falling open. “Haruka.” He said, and damn, his voice sounded different from the one in his thoughts. Haruka didn't say anything, he just stared. He could drown in those eyes.

“Rin... Rin-chan.” he finally replied and he took a slow step towards him. After being in Australia for years and ending up here, he'd never thought he'd see that face again. A face he had been trying to avoid ever since--- Why?

“Didn't think I'd see you here.” Rin murmured, sounding bitter and more worn out than he had intended to, his jaw feeling heavy from the sudden rush of heartbeat and memories that he tried to forget so hard. It was easier to keep his cool when he avoided his eyes, but before he could say anything, a tall, brown-haired teen stood between him and Haruka.

“Haru-chan.” he said, his voice friendly and soft, as if he was talking to someone he was very close to and very much appreciated. He took a quick glance at the person Haru had been talking to, looking grim out of a second. He straightened up, looking broad and muscular in comparison to the slenderness of the boy behind him. “Stay away from him.” he growled, brows knitting in anger before he pushed Haruka's shoulder to guide him down the hallway and away from Rin.

“What the hell is your problem?” The redhead asked, but was left without a reply.

The rest of the day was as uneventful as Rin would have thought it to be-- so his mind unfortunately had enough time to keep circling back to Haruka and his strangely dark companion. The brown haired guy was weirdly familiar, too, now that he kept thinking back to his dangerously gleaming green eyes and the soft voice that he had used when he spoke to Haru.

The teens of the same age were supposed to meet in the evening, though, giving reports about how their day had been if he remembered correctly. So that was where he was going, guided by the woman he had sat in the office earlier with, short blonde hair and glasses. Grumpily, Rin buried his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants again, gaze stubbornly directed towards the ground. He didn't want to be here, playing Kindergarten. And he didn't see Haru anywhere, either.

When he sat down, other teenagers gathered, too, sitting down on chairs in a circle.

“Hello everyone!” the woman opened, a smile on her lips. “We will go around clockwise and everybody is going to tell us what was good-- and what was bad about the day we spent together. But first I'd like to introduce you to Rin Matsuoka. He just joined us today, please make him feel welcome.” And a dozen eyes were focused on him. Rin wanted to vanish.

“Hello, Rin!” the circle mumbled, some louder than the others, some mocking, some friendly, and some just bored. Except for that one voice that was quieter than the mixture of tones, finishing later than all of them. It was Haruka's voice. When he heard it, he finally convinced himself to look up, eyes on the slender figure that had just entered the room, closing it gently.

But before he had to reply anything, another, significantly louder voice, chimed up, interrupting the circle. “Rin Matsuoka! Haruka Nanase! Makoto Tachibana!” The sound belonged to a blonde guy that was jumping up and down on his chair, flailing his arms like a penguin. The three boys that had been called out and everyone else in the round now looked at the boy in confusion.

The blond, curly haired and widely grinning teen pointed at himself. “Nagisa Hazuki.” he explained, still rocking back and forth in excitement.

“What's your point?” Makoto said, narrowing his eyes at the disruption. It seemed as though he desperately wanted the younger boy to shut up, though, gesturing quietly to cut it out.

“We all have girly names?” Nagisa suggested sweetly, finger pressed to his mouth. He still beamed with happiness, though, smiling like a maniac.

“Ah, that was a very nice observation, Nagisa.” The woman overtook the round again, made everyone be more quiet, and managed to make the first few teens speak up. Most of them were obviously used to the procedure.

Rin's eyes kept flickering back towards Haru's face, though, mustering him quietly, but intently. He almost missed his own turn and then made something up about how good it had been to see his sister today. He even looked at Makoto – which he now knew was his name – and Nagisa every now and then, brain clouded with something that didn't quite want to return to him. While Makoto seemed to want to shred him to pieces, Haruka always looked back at him with those deep sea eyes, patiently and softly, as though he was wanting the same thing. Whatever that thing was.

When it was Haru's turn, he was still looking at Rin. “I met someone special today. That was good.” he said gently, not averting his gaze for a single moment.

Rin's eyes widened and he had to break eye contact to make his heart beat slower, mustering the floor with a quiet. “Tsk.”

He hoped he didn't flush or anything embarrassing like that. He didn't even listen to the other teens that spoke up one after the other. Haru's voice echoed in his mind, the way he had met his gaze so bravely. Someone special. Tsk. The gathering was over quickly after that. Apparently everyone wanted to leave the room and return to their own bedrooms as quickly as possible.

When they finally streamed out of the door, Rin was left behind, hoping he'd walk with Haruka on the way out. But he was disappointed and the slender teen was shielded by the significantly taller brown haired guy again, safely led outside so they couldn't even share another glance. He was joined by the younger blond, though, who stood on the tip of his toes next to him, looking up at him curiously. “Rin-chan.” he said happily, “Don't you rememb--” But suddenly he was cut off, too, and Makoto had returned, grabbing his shoulders harshly and navigating him outside.

Now Rin was really left alone, except for the woman who tried to smile encouragingly and gestured for him to step out of the room. How was he supposed to sleep now? Stressed as he was he felt the itch for the first time, the need for another shot, another dose of something else than confusing thoughts and aggravating brown-haired guys. The blonde therapist seemed to understand and put her hand on his shoulder. “You can ring for us at any time, if it gets too bad. I'm sure you'll make it, though.” she said softly, but Rin couldn't shake off the feeling that it was something that she said to everyone when he left for his room, the hallway already empty of people.

Once he dropped himself on his bed, he missed popping in headphones to forget it all. But there was just silence and the thought of Haruka, looking pretty in the neon light.

He tried touching himself but it didn't suffice, his hand soon coming to rest on the mattress next to him, sapphire eyes staring up at the ceiling. What was it about that boy that made him so restless now that he had seen him – despite the urge to figure out whether he had really spoken to him as a child, when they were both children and what he had said back then that still made his heart clench in his chest. He had never shown interest in boys. Hell, he hadn't shown much interest in any other person ever since he had left for Australia.

Unable to keep his eyes closed and find to sleep, Rin pushed himself off the mattress to go for a walk in the hallway, fists clenching at his sides when he felt the need for a shot again. Damn Kou. He could be anywhere else right now. He almost felt like kicking over one of the trash cans he passed just so that they'd throw him out. So he could forget Haru again.

But when he unglued his gaze from the floor, there he was. Rin was speechless for a moment, wondering whether he hallucinated it all. Was he that level of crazy? Maybe. But the other teen took a step towards him and Rin hastily closed the gap between them, guiding him towards the opposite wall. They really should have said something, anything, but somehow words weren't necessary between the both of them, Rin's knee slipping between Haru's legs and pressing himself closer. He could hear the breath catch in the throat of the younger teen when he leaned in and they both knew that they were going to kiss each other.

And so they did, clumsily at first, until heat took Rin's mind over and he couldn't muster to give the other boy any more time, hands coming to rest on his waist as he kissed him so abundantly they both forgot to breathe at all. Once they seperated, they were both panting, Haru's blue eyes gleaming in the dark. There was still that strange calm about him, wrapping Rin into a soft embrace-- he didn't know why, but as long as he was that close to the quiet boy, he'd be alright. He wouldn't need another dose, he wouldn't need therapy.

Just when Rin's hips bucked forward and their groins brushed, he felt a harsh grip on his shoulder and someone was turning him around with ease, just to land his fist directly in his face. Rin yelped and managed to move out of the death grip enough so the knuckles only brushed his cheekbone, looking up into eerily expressionless green eyes.

“I told you to stay away from him.”

“Makoto.” that was Haru's voice and the dark-haired boy pushed himself off the wall with ease, slipped past Rin and put his hand on Makoto's shoulder. The touch seemed to have a soothing effect on the taller male and he instantly relaxed, regarding Rin with a judgmental expression.

"You've never been any good for him. Why would you be, after all these years?”

Rin wanted to reply something, but Haruka spoke up first. “People change, Makoto.” There was a quiet plea to those words and it made Rin sick with the need to know what exactly was going on. The two teens left before he was able to do so, though, Makoto guiding Haru down the hallway and away from him, to what was probably their shared room.


End file.
